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REVIEW: SILENCE OF THE SLEEP

Silence of the Sleep is a game that hits a lot of genres. It’s a psychological 2D horror adventure game on the PC and has been developed by Jesse Makkonen. The game puts you in the place of a man called Jacob Reeves, a man who we learn from the start of the game no longer has the will to live but when he decides to end it all it turns out his adventure is just beginning.

From the start this game really grabs you, brings you in and makes gets you involved with the character. You begin on a cliff edge and from there you the player has no choice in what is about to happen, but you must start it. Then the adventure begins. The story of the game is really engaging and really easy to get into. The player knows that this is not their story and so you just get the opportunity to sit back and enjoy it. The story of the game is very engaging from the start you wake up in a room with no recollection of who you are or what is happening. After a few hours of playing you start to get a psychological feel to it and this is especially noticeable once you meet some of the other characters from around this world. A lot of the communication is done in riddles and you can tell they are suffering but it’s not obvious. What it does do is give you more drive to discover the rest of Jacobs story, meeting some key characters along the way only makes you want to push forward more and you begin to really see Jacob in a new light.

Graphics-wise, Silence of the Sleep looks great! They really different from what you normally see in games, very dark and gritty. One of the more interesting points is the way that there are very few details on the people. This was enjoyable as it made you concentrate on the characters speech a lot more. You can easily determine which characters you should talk to or have something you need by looking for the various colours that appear on them. Colour is also used to great effect for example, The colour Red is used a lot to obviously signify blood and a very interesting hiding mechanic. The other characters are the enemies and they are horrifying to look at, not like “oh man that’s horrifying” but more like the “HOLY SHIT!” kind of horrifying. They are just horrible like something made from a mad man’s nightmares and this is only made worse by the fact that they also have no colour or detail and are just black shadows which can obviously kill you in a multitude of ways.

The gameplay is great, you’re not super-fast or super strong, you control yourself with the WASD keys but not in the normal fashion, W isn’t up its away from the screen and allows you to walk through doors in front of you and similar to D which is towards the screen and allows you to walk into faded doors towards you. This can be quite hard to use in a tight spot when running away as turning and opening doors can be a challenge.

One of the main aspects of the game is the fact that you have to hide from danger, there are only certain areas where you can hide and these hiding spots are only in certain areas. The thing about hiding is that it does keep you safe however you may need to perform a mini game in order to stay alive. One of the more interesting things about hiding is that it changes the way the game looks and sounds, the game turns red, almost evil looking and the sound changes dramatically. I hid in a room with a picture and a baby’s crib, you could hear the child crying and when I had to hide from some abomination which was enough to give me nightmares. I could hear something deep and evil crying, almost laughing at me but I didn’t know if hiding was enough, but im sure turning the game off may have been too much!

The Game also utilises puzzles to make the player progress. These puzzles are difficult but not impossible and it’s a great feeling when one has you stumped and you just walk past the answer numerous times before it clicks in your head. Satisfaction from finding and discovering these puzzles is only shortened by not wanting to open the door they lead to.

The sound for the game is amazing and it just so happens that they have released the soundtrack for the game for free which is downloaded into the files from Steam. Not only is the soundtrack amazing but the basic sounds from walking, opening doors and turning the flashlight on and off work so well with your surroundings. When a monster comes is near you can hear it moving through the doors, this sound is gross and disgusting but it works so well. The actually sound of the monsters when they are chasing you is a sound that I have never heard before it’s a sharp sound with a lot of different tones which all cut you deep and the only thing you want to do is run.

Silence of the sleep is a great game which I think anyone in the Indie game scene will love, the gameplay is great, the art style and graphics are amazing and when coupled with the sound it makes for a really aesthetically pleasing game. The story is great if not a little slow to get going but I am sure that you will love it once you are swept away in the world. Jacob as a character is developed well as are the characters which surround him. The puzzles really help to break up the chase scenes but they also work very well together. At the moment Silence of the sleep can be picked up on Steam now and I think it’s a great addition to anyone’s library.